Overview

Quila MacFarlane is devastated by the death of her mother, especially now that it’s just her and her father on Devils Rock where her father is the lighthouse keeper. They can’t leave and almost no one ever comes to visit them. But the morning after a storm, something floats ashore that changes their lives forever: Two small mattresses strapped together, and inside, a baby! They name her Cecelia, which means “a gift from the sea,” and call her Celia. She makes them a family again–and helps heal the hurt left by ...

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Overview

Quila MacFarlane is devastated by the death of her mother, especially now that it’s just her and her father on Devils Rock where her father is the lighthouse keeper. They can’t leave and almost no one ever comes to visit them. But the morning after a storm, something floats ashore that changes their lives forever: Two small mattresses strapped together, and inside, a baby! They name her Cecelia, which means “a gift from the sea,” and call her Celia. She makes them a family again–and helps heal the hurt left by Quila’s mother’s passing. Two years later, though, another stranger arrives, one who changes everything all over again: A woman named Margaret, come looking for the final resting place of her sister, whose ship had gone down in a storm two years before. Her sister’s baby had never been found, either, she explains, and now she has no family of her own. Could this be Celia’s aunt? Will Quila have to give up Celia so Margaret can have her own family back? This is a gripping tale full of love, loss, and healing.

Quila and her father, living alone in a remote Maine lighthouse in the 1850s, find their lives profoundly changed when a baby washes ashore and they decide to keep her as part of their family.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

Inspired by the true story of a mid-19th-century lighthouse keeper who found a baby washed ashore, this atmospheric historical novel focuses on the keeper's 12-year-old daughter. Quila, the narrator, has never lived anywhere but Devils Rock Island. She and her father are having trouble coping with the death of Quila's mother, but the arrival of baby Cecelia (whose name means "gift from the sea") helps bring them back to life. Two years later, Cecelia's aunt Margaret comes to the island in search of her niece, and Quila tries to escape with the baby and nearly drowns. Kinsey-Warnock (The Canada Geese Quilt) gives a touching picture of the broken family's isolation and loneliness on the rocky island and their gradual healing, but there are flaws. The well-researched period details compete with the often modern-sounding narration. And a fantasy-like sequence as Quila is drowning seems out of place in an otherwise realistic novel: just as Quila sinks "down, down to where the fishes would feast on [her] bones," she and Celia are miraculously rescued by a pod of seals and, perhaps, by the ghost of Celia's mother. These problems notwithstanding, readers will be comforted by the author's emphasis on warmth and family, and are likely to admire Quila's sturdy independence and resilience. Final artwork not seen by PW. Ages 10-up. (June) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

KLIATT

This is a brief, illustrated story of a family living off the coast of Maine during the mid-1800s. After the death of her mother, Quila is alone with her depressed father on the island where they tend the lighthouse. In a storm, a baby girl is washed ashore, and they adopt the child as their own, with little Celia helping to alleviate their grief. Months pass, storms come and go. Then a woman visits them, searching for a place to grieve for her sister, who drowned off the coast. It is discovered that this woman, Margaret, is the aunt of little Celia, but Quila and her father can't imagine giving up the beloved child. Quila even bundles Celia up and rows away with her, thinking to hold on to her that way, but rough waters turn the little boat over and seals come to save the two girls from drowning. Margaret stays with them for six months, and her presence becomes essential to the happiness of them all, including Quila's father, who resolves the dilemma by marrying Margaret and keeping them all together. The wind, waves, seals, sea glass, and sea birds are part of the story as much as the humans are, and the world on the edge of the sea is captured beautifully by Kinsey-Warnock, who is also the author of The Canada Geese Quilt. KLIATT Codes: J—Recommended for junior high school students. 2003, Random House, Knopf, 112p. illus.,
— Claire Rosser

School Library Journal

Gr 4-6-Quila MacFarlane's father tends the lighthouse on Devil's Rock, a remote island off the coast of Maine, and when her mother dies, the lonely 12-year-old assumes the role of cook and housekeeper. One day, after a ship goes down, she finds two small mattresses tied together. Inside is a baby. Now the girl has more work than ever, but Celia brings new life to the island, even giving some joy to Quila's grieving father. But then a woman arrives, wanting to say good-bye to her sister who died in a shipwreck, and Quila and Papa realize that she is Celia's aunt. Quila is torn between hating this stranger who threatens to take the child away, and loving her for the friendship she brings. Similar in theme and style to Patricia MacLachlan's Sarah, Plain and Tall (HarperCollins, 1985), this is a lovingly drawn portrait of a girl and her father struggling to cope with a devastating loss. Quila's ever-shifting feelings of resentment, guilt, and love toward her father, Celia, and Celia's aunt are perfectly captured and believable, as are her conflicting desires to be responsible and to be free to enjoy her childhood. Interspersed throughout the novel are details of the lonely, difficult life as a lighthouse keeper in 1858. Pedersen's stylized, almost folksy pencil drawings appear throughout the text. This is a compelling novel, with small suspenseful moments to draw readers in, and a brave and thoughtful heroine.-Ashley Larsen, Woodside Library, CA Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

A gently predictable story about a mid-19th-century girl living in a lighthouse. Quila is 12 when her mother dies, leaving her and her father alone off the Maine coast in the lighthouse that he tends. A shipwreck washes ashore a small bundle made of two mattresses, and there's a baby in it. They name her Celia, and Quila's grief at missing her mother becomes bound up in the endless care a baby takes. When a plucky Irish immigrant named Margaret comes looking for some information on her sister lost at sea, it's discovered that her sister may be Celia's mother. Margaret spends six months at the lighthouse, learning to love the place while Quila frets over the coming loss of Celia to Margaret. Predictably, Margaret and Quila's father fall in love and decide to marry, with promises of trips to the mainland for Quila to see all the things her mother promised her. Much atmospheric description of the flora and fauna-but not much to challenge the imagination. (Fiction. 10-12)

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Customer Reviews

Anonymous

Posted June 14, 2014

The awesome happy and sad book

The book is sad and exhilerating.

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Anonymous

Posted May 6, 2012

truly enjoyable read. bought it for my neice but i have read it

truly enjoyable read. bought it for my neice but i have read it three times myself. really like this author for kids.

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Anonymous

Posted February 4, 2012

Delightful

This is just a delightful little book. I'm glad I found it on the Nook. It is for any age group.

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Anonymous

Posted December 25, 2011

Anominas
Nobody

Best book i have ever read

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Anonymous

Posted December 25, 2011

:) :)hghfyffjchdcyffd

I loved this book i have read before i got the nook ehen i was in third and now im in the middle of fith and i still love this book READ THIS NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ;) :)

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Anonymous

Posted July 8, 2011

Great!!!

At first i thought this book was boring but then i read more and more and i love it. It is definetely on my favorites shelf. It is totally worth buying.

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8756856

Posted January 3, 2011

truly touching novel, warmed my heart

when a young girls mom dies her life gets turned upside down. angry seas brings something very supprizing as role in life chages to an older sis, and when the oppirtuniry approches will she decline or take find out in gifts from the sea s

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Anonymous

Posted December 11, 2006

SPECTACULAR!!

This book is about a girl who lives in a lighthouse, her mom just died. The has never been to land before, but something comes by and helps he get though her mothers death.

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Anonymous

Posted December 2, 2006

best book ever

i think this is an outstanding book it only took me a couple of days to read because i couldn't put the book down. i would be so supprised if it didn't get a 5/5 the detail was great and so was every thing.

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Anonymous

Posted April 3, 2006

Gifts from the Sea

this book is very emotinial. i recemend it to any age readers and think that they will love it too. (i hope)

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Anonymous

Posted April 3, 2006

Gifts from the Sea

this book is the best i think that people can relate to it. it was SAD/ HAPPY/ FUNNY all mixed. I definetly recamend this to any age readers.

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